The Girl Who Came Home - A Titanic Novel [Kindle Edition]

Titanic is a familiar story but this novel is based on real life characters who left Ireland to start new lives in America. As such it brings alive the stories of the passengers who went through the disastrous sinking of an 'unsinkable ship'. The story is told through the eyes of Maggie a steerage passenger and through her granddaughter Grace in America. Throughout it run the threads of a love story and the guilt and pain of being a survivor.
Well written and moving.

As the 100th anniversary of Titanic is almost upon us I thought I should make an effort to read something about it and this was a great choice!
Clearly well researched, the details of life on board the ship as well as life in the Irish village are effectively recreated, drawing you straight into the story and into the characters' lives.
Although the events of Titanic are well known to most people, this novel uses a little known but tragic true story as a framework, adding another level of interest.
A moving and very readable novel. Hope there will be more to come from this writer!

With the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic almost upon us, it's only right that we're reminded of one of the most awful maritime disasters in history. Hazel Gaynor's beautiful novel, The Girl Who Came Home, is not only a reminder of the actual disaster, but it's an exploration of human emotions - a gut-wrenching before and after look at lives that were forever changed on that momentous day. Hazel has based this novel on a true story of the Addergoole Fourteen, a group of men and women who left their small village in County Mayo inIreland to board the Titanic for its maiden voyage.

In Chicago in 1982, Grace Butler is looking for a story to write in order to revive her journalism career. She needs something big - something that will tap into the readers' emotions and get her noticed. But never in a million years was she expecting her great grandmother, Maggie Murphy, to be the one to provide her with what she's looking for. Maggie has kept a secret for seventy years and decides that now is the time to open up and share it with her great granddaughter.

And so the story takes us back to that rural Irish village in April 1912 when seventeen year old Maggie Murphy is preparing to sail on the Titanic, along with her aunt Kathleen and two of her best friends, Peggy and Katie. In all, fourteen men and women from the village are packing up their lives in hope of a better one over in America.

Maggie is excited about her impending voyage, but devastated to be leaving behind her beloved Seamus. She hopes he'll be able to join her soon in America but in the meantime, he's written a selection of love letters to keep her company on the journey ahead. These letters form part of this amazing story, where we learn what's going through the minds of some who have been left behind. Maggie also keeps a private journal during the sailing and it allows us a glimpse into her innermost thoughts.

Hazel's depiction of the characters in this novel is beautiful. She brings us right into their lives and we become invested in them. Although we know the fate of the ship, we're left rooting for the people we've come to know and hope that there's a way out for them. We also see the stories of some of those waiting on the other side - the relatives and friends who have gathered to hear news of the ill-fated ship. How unbearable it must have been to have to check a list of the dead, praying you wouldn't see your loved one's name on it.

Through all the mayhem on the ship, we follow Maggie and learn her fate, but it's only as the full scale of the disaster unfolds that we begin to learn the fate of the rest of the Irish group. Hazel manages to weave plenty of twists and surprises into the story and I have to admit to shedding a tear on a few occasions.

Forward to 1982 and Maggie and her great granddaughter decide to take a trip back to that little village in Ireland where it all began. Seventy years on, she feels it's about time she made peace with her past. It's an emotional scene as the past mingles with the present and we're left reeling as some unexpected plot twists reveal themselves.

If you're a lover of all things Titanic, you'll love The Girl Who Came Home, but if you just like a great emotional read with amazing, relatable characters, this is also the book for you. Hazel has managed to take a story that we've all heard a million times and give us a new perspective. Her attention to the detail of the ship made me feel I was there and her ability to portray the innermost thoughts of the characters meant I was fully invested in them and their safety. It's a thoroughly enjoyable read and I'd highly recommend it.